


manaʻoʻiʻo (faith)

by desitonystark



Series: the old guard AU [2]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Immortals, Alternate Universe - The Old Guard (Movie 2020) Fusion, Developing Relationship, Episode Tag, Episode: s01e08 Mana'o (Belief), M/M, Non-Linear Narrative, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:01:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27347056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desitonystark/pseuds/desitonystark
Summary: Danny adjusts to life as an Immortal, and Five O takes on a new case.
Relationships: Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Series: the old guard AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1990519
Comments: 6
Kudos: 52





	manaʻoʻiʻo (faith)

**Author's Note:**

> i just rly like the Meka episode.

“So how does it work exactly?” Danny asks one night, “Who decides whether we’re going to live forever or die wrinkly and without control of our basic body functions? Is it a genetics thing? Are my parents Immortal?”

“Nobody knows,” Steve answers, before grimacing slightly, “Well, it’s possible that my father knew. I never really got around to asking him.”

Danny hums, and Steve can tell that he still has questions, but he’s worried that he’s overstepped and is holding them back. In reality, Steve’s not upset by the reminder that John’s dead. He’s had months to come to terms with it.

He does, on the other hand, feel like he’s failing Danny everytime Danny has a question that he can’t answer. So it’s easier to let the conversation hit a lull, then admit what Steve’s known all along - Danny deserves better than this, better than _him._

He’s too much of a coward to ever say anything.

  
  
  


//

  
  
  
  


“We’ve got a new case,” Chin gestures at the screen, “Somebody found a body in the pit of a _luau_ that was being prepared for a bunch of tourists. It’s some pretty gruesome stuff. Uniforms who responded to the 9-1-1 call say that the body was discovered in front of the tourists.”

“We got any leads on an ID?” Steve asks. He turns to see Danny pushing the glass door open with one hand, the other clutching a cane. “What’s with the accessories?”

Danny spins on his one good foot, “I thought it spruced up the look. You don’t agree?”

Steve quirks an eyebrow, “You’re not supposed to need canes anymore. Your body heals itself now.”

“That it does,” Danny concedes, “I fell down the stairs yesterday, and my leg healed up wrong. Since I can’t go to a doctor about it, and I don’t fancy having to re-break my leg just so that it sets right; I’m on the cane for the next couple of days until I can work up the courage to harm myself.”

“I can break it for you if you want _brah,”_ Kono pipes up, and she looks so earnest that it makes Steve want to smile, “I have a powerful kick that you fix it for you.”

“Thank you, but no thank you. Gracie was with me when I fell, so this is a blessing in disguise. She’s eight but she’s not stupid. She’s going to notice if my leg magically heals overnight, and I can’t answer any of her questions right now.”

The mention of Danny’s daughter sobers all of them up momentarily. Unlike Steve, who was on the battlefield for his first Death, or even Kono, who was in a patron’s bed - Danny is still with his mortal family. He moved to Hawaii _for_ his daughter; and is pointedly ignoring what his immortal life means against her mortal one.

Chin tried to explain it to him once, that there’s a life Before Death, and After - and it would be easier if he realised that his life had started all over again. Danny responded by saying that if any of them tried to take him away from his daughter, he’d empty his magazine into them - until they stopped healing.

Privately, Steve thinks it’s why they still haven’t met Grace, even though Danny’s been with them for close to six months - under the cover of their shiny new taskforce, Five Oh. It isn’t that they haven’t heard about Grace; because Danny never misses an opportunity to talk about his daughter; but pictures and videos don’t make up for the real thing.

He thinks that Danny’s worried they might do something to Grace, in an attempt to make him understand that she’s a part of a life he can no longer lead. In reality, they’re just trying to save him from the heartbreak of when _she_ realises that her father isn’t ageing, isn’t succumbing to the human fragility of death and disease. Of all of them, Chin knows the pain of watching a loved one wither in front of you, when there’s not so much as a scratch on your own body.

Still, Danny’s relationship with his daughter is, above all else, _his_ responsibility - and as long as they’re in Hawaii; there’s no practical way for Danny to cut ties with Grace, so they’ve learnt to take a backseat and let Danny cross that bridge when he comes to it.

“That’s Meka,” Danny says, turning to the screen, “Why’s Meka on the screen?”

Chin ducks his head, a gesture Steve recognises from when he’s telling victims of the family about the news, “He’s on the screen because he’s our newest case. Meka Hanamona was the body in the _luau_.”

  
  
  
  


//

  
  
  
  


It’s dark. The sun has long since fallen, and there’s a bite to the breeze that only comes with the night-time, but Steve can’t bring himself to turn in for the night. He can’t bring himself to tell Danny to leave and go back to his molten _studio_ , because calling it an apartment would be giving it more praise than it deserves.

His hands are resting on the handles of the chairs, stretched out and loose. Danny’s are similarly stretched out, and when they move - they brush against Steve’s fingers. He’s focusing a lot of his attention on not reaching out and bridging the distance, threading their fingers together and intertwining them.

It isn’t that he thinks he’ll be rejected, because Steve’s been around long enough to recognise the glimmer of _interest_ that flickers through Danny’s eyes. It’s that he doesn’t think he’s allowed.

  
  
  
  


//

  
  
  
  


“Look I know you like to remind me that I’m not a cop,” Steve begins placatingly, “but I know enough to realise that where there’s smoke…” he trails off, unwilling to finish in the face of the glare Danny’s sending his way.

“Where there’s smoke? Should we write that on the wall? ‘ _Your Honour, he’s guilty._ _Why? There was smoke_ ’.”

“Busts gone bad, wire transfers,” Steve lists them off on his fingers, “hidden accounts, a ticket to Singapore that his wife didn’t know about. I mean Danny, I’m just saying.”

Danny opens his mouth and then closes it, throws his hands up in defeat. He steps away from the computer table, and levels Steve with a stare, “You know what, I’m done. How about that, all right?”

He gestures at all three of them, “This is supposed to be my family right, that’s what you guys keep telling me? That we have each other’s backs, that we trust each other?”

Almost as one, they nod, unsure of where Danny’s going with this.

Danny jerks his head, as if he expected them to agree, “Well then, _family,_ if my word isn’t good enough for you, then I do not know what I’m doing here.”

He spins on his heels and walks away, not waiting for any of them to reply. Steve moves to go after him, to explain that it isn’t Danny they’re doubting, but they have to consider all possibilities, but Chin stills him with a hand over his arm.

“I’ll go after him,” Chin says, tilting his head, “I know what he’s going through.” Behind him, Kono nods, “This isn’t something you’re going to understand Boss. You don’t know what it’s like to have your own people investigate you.”

Steve thinks about _Honouliuli,_ how he and Joe spent close to a year trying to figure out a way to bust Kono and Chin out without raising suspicions. He steps back and gestures at Chin to go ahead, and pretends like his gut isn’t twisting at the thought that he can’t be there for Danny.

  
  
  
  


//

  
  
  
  


“You don’t know it yet Steve,” John had said into the open air when they were in Korea, softly like the words were dangerous, “but you’re going to be the best of us.”

The words should’ve brought him comfort, but instead they felt something he was never going to live up to.

They still feel like that.

  
  
  
  


//

  
  
  
  


“It’s Kaleo,” Danny says, in the car, after Steve’s picked him up from Halawa, “The cop that Sing Min had inside HPD, it’s Kaleo.”

“Okay,” Steve says, pulling the car in reverse so that they can go to HPD. It feels like an apology. 

Steve chances a glance at Danny, and Danny meets his gaze head on. He raises his eyebrows ever so slightly, and Danny nods his head in response. He can feel the tension seeping from his shoulders.

They’re okay. Everything else is just details, because they’re okay. 

He reaches out and grips at Danny’s knee, the one that’s bent wrong because it wasn’t set right, and after a moment - Danny puts his hand over Steve’s and squeezes.

_Fin_

**Author's Note:**

> again, no promises to actually expand this, but its very possible i'll just pick random episodes and revamp them to fit the AU, with some world-building (sort of the way this is)  
> [i'm also on tumblr](https://danny-williams.tumblr.com)  
> 


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